Laura-Lynn Tyler Thompson isn’t planning to stand on a soapbox and give a rousing speech as supporters cheer and TV cameras look on.
Unlike her NDP and Liberal opponents in Burnaby South, who hosted such campaign kickoffs this weekend, the People’s Party of Canada (PPC) candidate says her new party’s campaign will rely on more on-the-ground campaigning.
“I think there has to be a strategy that's kind of unique because we're so brand new,” Thompson said.
The Christian TV host will be among the first candidates to face voters under the PPC banner since the party was formed by former Conservative Maxime Bernier. She will be facing NDP leader Jagmeet Singh, Liberal Karen Wang and Conservative Jay Shin in the Feb. 25 byelection to replace former NDP MP and current Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart. (The Green Party is not running a candidate in the byelection and the NOW is not aware of any other candidates.)
Thompson said she has been working 15 to 18 hours a day putting her campaign together, but she’s confident her message of small government and personal responsibility will connect with voters.
“Being a new, fledgling party, we've been in the process of getting everything ready but it is coming together,” she said.
Thompson, a New Westminster resident, ran unsuccessfully for Burnaby school board in October. She came in 11th of 13 candidates running for seven trustee chairs.
This time, however, Thompson won’t be campaigning on the key issue of her school board run – what she calls an ideology of gender fluidity. She has been an ardent opponent of B.C. school resources meant to help teachers teach about sexual orientation and gender identity.
Bernier has said his party will not address gender identity issues in its platform.
“It is important – and he's made that very clear to me – that I have to really reflect the party platform,” Thompson said.
She said it won’t be hard for her to bite her tongue on the issue, as she is in agreement with the PPC stances, including on issues such as fiscal responsibility and immigration.
Thompson said she shares Bernier’s view that Canada may be at risk of becoming too diverse. She said the country needs to accept the differences of others “and yet have a cohesiveness here in Canada.”
Thompson said she wasn’t worried about that message’s ability to stick in a diverse riding where the majority of residents are immigrants. She said she has been able to connect with people from different backgrounds who share similar “traditional values” such as loving family and religion.
Asked what the top local issues are, Thompson mentioned housing first. She did not identify any specific policy solutions to housing affordability but said she would champion the issue.
“What has to happen is there has to be some brainstorming around the issues,” she said. “There has to be an assessment of what’s going on and then coming up with actual solutions.”
